462 DESCRIPTIVE GEOLOGY. 



SECTION VIII 



DESERT REGION. 



BY S. F. EMMONS. 



Skull Valley is a broad arm of the Salt Lake Valley, lying to the 

 west of the Aqui Mountains. In its northern portion, it scarcely rises above 

 the level of the lake, and is occupied by a great extent of marshes, which, 

 for the greater part of the year, are almost impassable. It rises gradually to 

 the south to about opposite the southern end of the Cedar Mountains, where 

 an almost imperceptible divide throws the drainage of the country beyond 

 westward into the Great Desert. This valley abounds in springs, which are 

 most frequent along the eastern edge of its northern portion, where they 

 are surrounded by very considerable extents of meadow-land, affording 

 excellent winter-grazing for stock. In the southern portion of the valley, 

 opposite Reynold's Pass, is a group of springs, in the midst of a swampy 

 tract, covered by coarse grass and reeds. Only one of these springs, how- 

 ever, furnishes potable water, the others being too highly charged with 

 mineral salts. The remaining dry portion is covered, as are all the valleys 

 of the plateau region, by a scattering growth of sage-brush and little clumps 

 of .the nutritious bunch-grass. On the slopes of the Aqui Mountains, at 

 Reynold's Pass, are great accumulations of fine quartz-sand, which have 

 been blown in from the desert through the gap in the Cedar Mountains, 

 and extend up many hundred feet on to the hills, choking up the bottoms 

 of the smaller ravines. 



Cedar Mountains. — They consist of a low range of hills, scarcely rising 

 more than 2,000 feet above the adjoining valley, whose long gentle slopes 

 are well covered with detrital material, and support a scanty growth of 

 sage-brush and juniper {Juniperus occidentalis), with near the summits a few 

 stunted pines. Like all the desert ranges, of which they are a fair type, they 

 afford a very scanty supply of water, which is only found in a few widely- 

 separated springs. This fact, combined with the scanty data to be obtained, 



